Services 2020

"SACRAMENTO, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 09/01/11 -- e.Republic's Center for Digital Government has announced the 2011 winners of its annual Best of the Web and Digital Government Achievement Awards. "

this looks really cool, thanks Joe Voros!

A super-fast summary of James Moody's "The Sixth Wave".

This is a very interesting article by futurist Stuart Candy. He discusses "artifacts of the future" - physical artifacts that have a pre-figurative element, they invoke contemplation of future possibilities. For the purpose of the project, they may be one strategy by which to ramp up the "tactility" or experiential basis of crowdsourced foresight. Ask (or allow) that each contribution have a picture and snap shot or fragment from the future.

This is the .org sister publication of the "Theconversation.edu,au" website.

"During the one-day session on April 19 at the AutoDesk Gallery, experts, researchers, and guests explored the many different frontiers where 3D printing and open manufacturing are changing the way that things are made. Among the topics that were explored were:"

"AAM's Center for the Future of Museums (CFM) helps museums explore the cultural, political and economic challenges facing society and devise strategies to shape a better tomorrow. CFM is a think-tank and research and design lab for fostering creativity and helping museums transcend traditional boundaries to serve society in new ways."

In the first years of the 21st century, our capacities for imagining new realities have proved inadequate. From Madrid to London, Bali to Mumbai, from Katrina-ravaged New Orleans to the tsunami's devastation all around the Indian Ocean, to the most recent financial crisis, the alarms went unheeded until after disaster had struck. Now, as the first decade of the century has drawn to a close, its many shocks make plain that we are living in a world with greater potential for surprise, uncertainty, and threats to resilience. In a time of poorly understood interacting causes and consequences, we require new habits of thinking, new approaches to assessment, and new ways of engaging with the world. Emerging is a world filled with just as much opportunity as risk, but seeing both of those forces and appreciating their interrelatedness requires new lenses and an unflagging awareness of diverse perspectives. It means investing all of our energies to profoundly challenge the status quo.

"UNITED NATIONS, Jun 2, 2011 (IPS) - As the world continues to marvel at the widespread progress in modern technology and home electronics, there are still about 2.5 billion people - out of a global population of nearly 6.9 billion - who have little or no access to electricity."

KOSMOS is an ancient Greek term meaning the harmony and beauty of the universe wherein all parts have their place within the Whole. It signifies humanity's alignment with the unchanging ground of being and the evolutionary organic forces of Nature. The integral approach of Kosmos Associates embraces body, mind, soul and spirit evolving in consciousness, cultures, worldviews, institutions and nations toward a new civilization.

To explore the iKnow system please use the top navigation menu to access the iScan - to monitor and search WI-WE issues, the iDelphi - to assess and prioritise WI-WE issues, the iLibrary - to share innovation and foresight and horizon scanning (FHS) documents, the iCommunity - to engage and network innovation and FHS people, the iNews - to feature selected contributions to iKnow's FHS systems, and the iOracle - to map FHS practices, players and outcomes - in collaboration with the mapping activities of the European Foresight Platform. To learn about the iKnow project's objectives and background, please click here .

"On June 2nd, I had the pleasure of speaking at the C40 Summit in São Paulo, Brazil. The C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group consists of iconic cities from around the world committed to addressing climate change. Chaired by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the group has recently joined forces with the Clinton Climate Initiative's Cities Program. Together, this partnership can have meaningful role in the fight against climate change."

from Global Guerrillas http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/

best list of futurist blogs I've ever seen! 

Everstate is an imaginary state in our contemporary world of the beginning of the 21st century created to identify and imagine various futures. It will be used to represent all states and each state. Everstate is thus an ideal-type state …

"The Economist leader headline in its June 4th issue is revealing: "The best way for Turks to promote democracy would be to vote against the ruling party." It reveals a mentality that has not shaken itself free from the paternalism and entitlements of the bygone colonialist days. What makes such an assertion so striking is that The Economist would know better than to advise American or Canadian or Israeli citizens how to vote. And it never did venture such an opinion on the eve of the election of such reactionary and militarist figures as George W. Bush, Stephen Harper, or Benjamin Netanyahu. Are the people of Turkey really so politically backward as to require guidance from this bastion of Western elite opinion so as to learn what is in their own best interest?"

Thought leaders in the field - including Bruce Sterling, Jamais Cascio, Bill McKibben, Witold Rybczynski and Jay Oglivy - will kick-start the launch by blogging about what "prevailing" means to them. Readers will be encouraged to become authors and help direct the discussion in groups devoted to everything from "Creating Stronger, Faster Communities" and "Human Enhancement" to "Revolutionizing Learning" and "Foresight - How Can We Think Critically About the Future?" "Prevailproject.org will be a place for everybody from my mother to technologists inventing the future to grapple with some of the most pressing questions of our time: How are the genetics, robotics, information and nano revolutions changing human nature, and how can we shape our own futures, toward our own ends, rather than being the pawns of these explosively powerful technologies?" said Joel Garreau, the Lincoln Professor of Law, Culture and Values at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, and director of The Prevail Project: Wise Governance for Challenging Futures.

""We want to demolish museums and libraries," the fevered Italian aesthetic revolutionary F.T. Marinetti declared in his 1909 Futurist Manifesto. "Museums, cemeteries!" Maybe so, maybe no. I'll vote no -- and so, I think, would photographer Richard Barnes, whose fascinating exhibit "Animal Logic," which documents the Smithsonian and other natural history museums as containers of imagined histories and outrageous dreams, is on view this month at Blue Sky Gallery. "

OzClim provides a simple step-by-step option to help you generate and explore climate scenarios. There are also six scenarios in the examples section for rainfall and temperature for 2030.

What will international science be like in 20 years? Speakers in this session organised by International Council for Science (ICSU) tried to depict the future, basing their predictions on the strategic plan of the ICSU for 2012-2017, and many foreseeable economic, social, political and environmental events.